Taxes for 30M workers ‘under-withheld’
WASHINGTON » Congressional auditors say about 30 million people — 21 percent of U.S. taxpayers — will have to come up with more money to pay their taxes next year because their employers withheld too little from their paychecks under government tables keyed to the new tax law.
New tax withholding tables for employers were put together by the government early this year. About 30 million workers received pay that was “under-withheld” — making their paychecks bigger this year but bringing a larger bill at tax time next spring, according to the Government Accountability Office’s report.
About 27 million taxpayers would have been affected even if the new law hadn’t been enacted. The changes, however, added 3 million to that number.
The Treasury Department and the IRS are responsible for updating the tax withholding tables each year. Highlighting the importance of accurate tables, the GAO said Treasury and the IRS currently don’t lay out in writing their roles and responsibilities for annual updates. The auditors recommended that they do so, in accordance with federal standards for internal controls.
Treasury and the IRS agreed with that recommendation, the report said.
The report by the independent auditors was requested in January by the senior Democrats on the Senate and House tax-writing committees, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts. They asked the GAO to analyze the withholding tables under the new tax law to make sure workers’ paychecks weren’t being under-withheld.